The International Prester John Project: How A Global Legend Was Created Across Six Centuries

Tom a Lincoln

An unremarkable chivalric romance written by Richard Johnson around 1607, The Most Pleasant History of Tom a Lincoln relates the adventures of Tom and his fellow Knights of the Round Table. In one episode, Tom and his fellow knights reach the realm of Prester John. After Tom defeats a dragon, Prester John refuses to allow his daughter Anglitora to marry Tom, and the two abscond together, leaving John and his grieving queen Bellamy to commit suicide. 

A Niayesh (p. 55) points out, here Prester John has become emptied of any of the significations that marked his identity for the previous five centuries:

Nothing in the play lends any specificity to his realm, where the character and his daughter simply appear as types of the angry father and disobedient daughter. No reference is made here to Prester John's being a Christian; in fact, he actually swears by 'the gods' (l. 2529) like a true pagan. The geographical whereabouts of his land are in no way detailed, leaving us only to infer that he is neither Indian... nor Ethiopian.  

Brooks (p. 233) includes an excerpt from a 1630 edition of Tom a Lincoln, published in London.  

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